State Education Commissioner David Steiner has given the Department of Education's space planners a case of the jitters. On March 31, Steiner overturned the city’s plan to move Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School into the building of  Brooklyn's PS 9 and phasing-out MS 571 for this coming fall. Steiner ruled that the DOE had failed to show that it had equitably allocated space and facilities among the three schools. Barely a week later, DOE has restarted its effort, issuing a new proposal that re-allocates use of the facilities. (For a full recap of the story, see Michael Winerip's April 11 New York Times column, [A City School's Uphill Fight over Sharing Space With a Charter](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/nyregion/11winerip.html?pagewanted=2&r=1&sq=Michael%20Winerip&st=cse&scp=5).)_

The PS 9 decision was the second time in a year that Steiner threw out a city charter school siting because the city had failed to adequately ensure that it would treat fairly all students in each affected school. Last summer, he nixed the city’s plan to expand Girls Prep Charter School in its existing building.

Steiner's ruling has pushed DOE to rework other co-location proposals as well.  It will revise its proposal to have an expanded Community Roots Charter School share space with PS 67 and postponed an April 11 public hearing. In Manhattan, a public hearing slated for April 12 regarding moving grades K-3 of KIPP S.T.A.R. into PS 115, was postponed and a revised proposal will be posted. An April 5  public hearing regarding the siting of Explore Charter School in MS 2 in Brooklyn, was also postponed. The DOE's letter to the affected schools states: "After receiving public input, the DOE has decided to re-examine the proposal to co-locate Explore Charter School at MS 002." A revised proposal will be issued. A proposal to move Coney Island Preparatory Public Charter School into a building shared by IS 303 and Rachel Carson High School for Coastal Studies was also revised.

The Panel for Educational Policy will be voting on a number of school co-location proposals at its April 28 and May 18 meetings. Now is the time that parents and community members can comment on proposals.

Will DOE's spate of quick rewrites prolong resistance to these charter sitings, or reduce it?  Stay tuned.